I’ll never forget one pompous 1st Lt. in my outfit. I was a parts clerk at the time, or training to be one, and the guy I was replacing was telling me about the Lt. Oliver(the soldier)said , “ Old Gary P. doesn’t like it when you fill out the forms this way!”. Lt. Gary P. Graves was standing behind a locker and came storming out and chewed Oliver’s butt for about an hour for using his first name. After that I called him(the Lt.) Gary P. Whenever I got the chance!
I have worked in Medicine for the last 25 years, and I still refer to every single doctor as “Doctor (lastname)”.
I have many who say to me “Please refer to me as Carl” or whatever.
I won’t do it. It is not a sign of respect per se (although it often is) because there are some I detest, but I make it a point to be consistent and treat them all the same way.
I leave it up to them to wonder why I do it, because it clearly is food for thought for some of them. The pompous ones think it is out of respect for them. The ones I truly like know it is something else.